ghostlightning

We Remember Love means we write about the good and the bad about the shows we’ve watched over the years of being an anime fan. More often than not we remember the good, because it’s not easy to remember terrible things. For us to remember such there must be a powerful connection to the shows we write about and that too is love.

And when we say “we write” it means you too. The articles here all aim to inspire discussion and participation. We really want you to become active readers. While there isn’t really anything wrong with lurking and (hopefully) enjoying the posts here, you do us a big favor by commenting, telling us what you think.

Do we ‘review’ anime? While we may recommend or endorse the shows we write about, we don’t really see ourselves as being ‘guardians of quality’ in our posts here. The kind of criticism we practice are more like explorations of certain elements in the shows we write about, discussing it and seeking your participation towards the celebration of memory.

I, ghostlightning run this site and do most of the writing but you will see many guest writers who I welcome to remember love with me. My very good friend mechafetish came up with the site name, and has and continues to collaborate with me on our more ambitious post ideas.

Many of the references, including the blog name are from the Macross franchise of anime. I first saw SDF Macross as a Philippine (english) dub in 1984. It was love at first sight. My taste in anime is diverse, but I do favor shows with robots. How did I end up becoming the otaku that I am? See here. For further investigation of my tastes in anime, see my anime list, and feel free to add me to your friend lists if you have an account.

I’ve been writing in a number of anime blogs, here’s how to find my stuff:

My favorite Gundam is War in the Pocket (Oh God Bernie… BERNIE!!!), followed by Stardust Memory. I just can’t say I like the characters much. I’m 3 episodes into 08th MS Team and I’m enjoying 00 right now, and my friend is succeeding in getting me to re-watch Turn A which I gave up on after 9 episodes.

So sorry I wasn’t able to credit you sooner for the awesome drawing. I’m still quite whelmed by the idea that this is actually happening; that I’m having this exchange with all of you interesting people who love anime perhaps more than I do.

You making that drawing just because I asked is quite humbling. When you reach my age, you kind of stop believing so much in the awesomeness of other people. Not their awesomeness in general, but how great they can be for you personally. Thank you, you honor me.

And you’re a Macross fan in the bargain! Ooh this is quite serendipitous. Check out otou-san’s Yakk Deculture site. With any luck, I’ll be contributing to that site as well. It’s such an awesome place to remember love.

Damn. Despite seeing more than twice as many individual titles as you, and seeing a much broader spread of anime overall, you’re not far behind me in pure time. I blame Slam Dunk and Prince of Tennis, but man. 84 days with only 100 TV shows? Impressive, impressive.

You also have a decent negative average score deviation. Nowhere near mine, but no one’s is. I applaud any and all hating.

Unfortunately, your hatred is not strong enough to give us high compatibility. I’ve yet to meet anyone with an 80+% match. Sigh…

I would link you to the FLCL post I wanted you to read, but I feel a more personal recommendation is in order.

First things first, I’m pretty surprised that FLCL isn’t straight up your alley. It’s GAINAX, it’s full of spectacularly animated robot fights, and it’s got tons of visual stylization as well as a legendary soundtrack. It’s got a heartfelt story about growing up and is a very raw, emotional experience that’s also got many, many layers of subtlety going on beneath the surface.

I think part of the problem is that you haven’t finished it. FLCL is not something that I’d recommend you watch in parts. The absolute best way to watch it is to plot yourself down and marathon it, which only takes about 2 1/2 hours anyway. It’s more than worth your time, and the streamlined experience will keep it’s momentum going. Even if you still don’t like it, FLCL is a show that can only really show you it’s stuff over it’s full run. It’s less a show that you watch a few episodes and can tell if you like it or not. You watch the whole thing to see if you like it or not, and then if you like it, you watch it again and try to find the things you missed (which my posts are meant to help with, being my thoughts as of my 8th or 9th rewatch.)

Really, when it comes down to it, it’s just a show I would have expected you to like. It’s in otou-san’s top 5, and you and he seem to agree on most things, and most people who understand it have it as one of their favorites (only people I’ve known to dislike it thought it was just a random comedy show.) Plus, I thought you were a GAINAX fanboy or something. FLCL is the show that introduced me to GAINAX, and for me has always been second only to Evangelion in terms of GAINAX’s definition.

I came across this here blog because after randomly typed ‘Bakemonogatari’ into Google for something to do, and I must say, I love lucky little surprises like this. Your blog is really amazing in a lot of ways, and as I begin to delve deeper into the world that is WordPress, i’ll be sure to remember this one.

To clarify, I’m a complete newbie when it comes to blogging; that is, I’ve never done it before. I’ve come across WP several times, and this time around, I’ve finally decided to get involved with it, as I’ve always wanted to. So far, though, I have no idea whatsoever to do…

As a slight favor in return for following your blog from here on out (not to sound rude, of course) but could you offer any tips for a young, fledgling blogger like myself? I really want to do what you do, more or less–give my thoughts on anime I watch. To add to my troubles, not only do I have no idea HOW to begin with my blog, but I’ve also just begun to dip my toe into the pool of anime, directed by two friends of mine who have been there, and truly done all that. *Sigh* I suppose I have to start somewhere, though; and if I manage to go through with this and get a blog up and running, I know I’ll find many more anime I love and more ways to express just how much I love them.

Sorry to waste time with my rant, though. Really, any advice you can offer will be helpful, be it about anime or blogging.

My apologies for not responding sooner; I was suddenly struck with one of those diseases no god-fearing man should ever suffer from.

Ignoring the fact that I’m not that much of a god-fearing man, of course.

I actually went through and read both of those yesterday morning, and I plan to go through once more soon. ‘Creativity and Laziness’ is probably full of the biggest lessons I need to learn before I start blogging, given my procrastination problems. Accepting a certain amount of laziness and compromising when necessary, writing things out ahead of time (given that it’s not guaranteed I can watch anime every day, and still want to maintain an ‘every-other-day’ or ‘every-third-day’ blog.) and writing smaller posts to keep things alive, and, finally, the joyous wonders of trolling. Oh, and who can forget the necessity of creativity?

And, of course, the second link is just full of ideas to ponder.

I’m definitely up for that idea, though. Any preferred method of messaging?

Hello! If you’re in commuting distance to Megadeath Mall then you can’t be that far from where I live (Pasig). Follow the twitter accounts of many bloggers (incl Filipino anime fans); us Pinoys sometimes get together and it’s been fun the past few years.

I really find it amusing when I find a fellow Filipino Mecha Junkie in the same vain as you are (thinks to myself “finally someone I can relate”). Your articles are really fun to read, though I’m a more general mecha junkie while you’re onto Macross – still, it’s a pleasure reading things coming from a person having the same culture as I am.

So yeah, that’s my ‘Hi’, haha! And one more thing, if it’s alright with you, can we have a link exchange? I’ve just started a photoblog, ‘catalogue-ing’ my mecha collection into this site –> http://mechacatalogue.com –> so yeah, that’s the embodiment of my mecha addiction, haha! Thanks in advance!

I like all sorts of robot anime, but yes I am really big on Macross. Glad to know you’ve enjoyed your visit here. I checked out your site and sure I’ll add it to WRL’s blogroll. I can’t really afford to collect toys and figures now that I have a family (and not enough display space to boot), but I always appreciate the merch. Thanks for visiting.

There’s every chance you won’t remember who I am, but a few years ago, you were the first person I came to about wanting to begin aniblogging–Digital Boy was the second. I ended up dropping the idea because I wasn’t in a position in life where I could really accomplish that.

In the few years since though, I’ve really grown a lot, in anime, writing and life, and since I feel I’m finally able to put my all into it, I’m going to give it another shot. A good one, this time. I’ve got a new Diary of an Anime Lived post that I’m hoping DigitalBoy will host for me, to begin with, and I’m going to rack my brain trying to figure out how to really get my own blog started.

Anyway, I just stopped in to say thanks for the bit of arse-kicking to get me started years ago. I haven’t been able to keep up with your blog as well as I’d like over time, but this is definitely all the more reason to do so religiously!